'Knight' moves: medieval 'Tale' uses classic-rock soundtrack

Published: Sunday, May 13, 2001

ROGER MOOREKnight Ridder

In the new movie, "A Knight's Tale," which opens Friday, eyes narrow into slits of fury, visors snap shut with a metallic clank, lances dip and horses snort and rear, ready for the lunge down the list.

And the audience of peasants and nobles clap their hands and stomp their feet.

Thump thump clap, thump thump clap.

Wait a minute! Stop the music! Queen didn't record "We Will Rock You" in the 14th century!

"It's funny, when the Queen song comes on, people either go with it, or they shut down completely," laughed writer-director Brian Helgeland. "We went for stadium rock songs, because this movie presents knights as the sports stars of their day. ... And when (the heroes) parade into London with 'The Boys are Back in Town,' it's funny and it's right."

Helgeland, writer of the darkly wacky thriller "Conspiracy Theory" and the just-plain-screwy "The Postman," has delivered the summer movie season's first huge gamble. It's a film Rolling Stone magazine has labeled this year's "Cool Summer Movie," a goofy romp starring young hunk Heath Ledger. It blends chivalry  the age of Geoffrey Chaucer  with classic rock  the age of Queen, BTO and Thin Lizzy.

"A Knight's Tale" throws out Hollywood's medieval rules in presenting a sports romance that makes the men wrapped in metal come off as the boxing/WWF stars of their day.

"We wanted to play up the whole, 'Let's get ready to rumble' aspect of the sport, the hoopla, which struck me as being just like boxing and pro wrestling today," Helgeland said.

"These guys were like rock stars or Muhammad Alis," said Ledger, the 21-year-old Aussie ("The Patriot") who stars in the film. "So we've made a movie about how that fame changes you, about how a person can 'change his stars,' alter his future."

Ledger's character, William, is the son of a poor thatcher (roofer). He longs to raise his station in life by competition. And with a team of peasant sidekicks, he does, gaining fame, wealth and the love of a noble lady by showing his courage in combat competitions.

Far-fetched?

"Not as far-fetched as you might think," said Hugh Thomas, a medievalist and associate professor of history at the University of Miami. "It's unlikely that people from the lowest ranks could even get into competitions like this, because of the expense of horses, armor and everything. But young men from lower nobility could easily use tournaments to rise through the ranks."

"There was no 'world championship' 'of jousting, which the movie depicts, said Florin Curta, assistant professor of medieval studies at the University of Florida. "But reading the romances of the day, you can see how men gained names and fame by jousting. ... And winning one was a great way of advancing yourself."

Second and third sons of nobles, cut off from inheritance, turned to the jousting "circuit" to make their names and fortunes.

"William Marshall, a man from poor nobility who, through jousting and marrying well, wound up as Regent of England, is the classic example of that," Thomas said.

"He was the Michael Jordan of jousting," Helgeland said. "Hey, I did my research on this. Eventually I threw it all out, but I read about Marshall."

Curta said, "There's a lot of scholarship that says that knights were, if not athletes, certainly the best physically conditioned and trained men of their day."

"The jousting was pretty difficult, but the dancing was even tougher," Ledger said. "We had three weeks to rehearse the dancing, doing that gavotte sort of thing that breaks into David Bowie ("Golden Years")."

Dancing was important. Even back in the Middle Ages, the stars had their groupies.

"All part of the whole rock 'n' roll movie we were trying to make," Helgeland said. "We even dressed the guys like the Rolling Stones, circa 1970."

So what we have is another Hollywood historical abomination, a movie that messes around with facts and eras and pop culture, weaving a tapestry that has everything to do with box office and little to do with historical accuracy. Will historians mind?

"Nooooo," Thomas said with a laugh. "Movies like this get kids into my class. Hollywood always mixes up a little fact with a lot of license. ... And having this guy, Heath Ledger, in it? That's going to be a big draw! We'll show the students what they got right and what they got wrong."

But really, Queen songs and modern wisecracks and anachronisms aside, "A Knight's Tale" is a movie with something to say.

"I like the message, quite aside from the fun part of this," Ledger said. "Nobility is something inside of you, not something bestowed by birth, or even by material gain. You've got to like that, don't you?"